Dear Madam,—Enclosed I send you the Picayune comment on the death of your distinguished husband and my honored commander.
General Longstreet is blamed for the mistake of General Lee in charging the heights of Gettysburg. The same mistake was made by General Burnside at Fredericksburg; which clearly proves that American soldiers can not successfully charge heights guarded by Americans. That is settled.
Why should General Lee send General Longstreet to Chickamauga immediately after Gettysburg, if Longstreet had been guilty of anything that his enemies so persistently accuse.
The only thing that General Longstreet was guilty of was the acceptance of office under the United States government after the war. Now suppose all the Confederate generals had accepted office as he did, would it not have effectively kept the office-holders placed here by the carpet-bag government out of power? And also, how many ex-Confederates refuse office under the United States government to-day, is a question I would like to have answered. Longstreet was too big a man for his day, that was all.
The scribbling of unscrupulous parties can not dim his fame. He was the hardest fighter of the Civil War, participant in all the battles of the Army of Northern Virginia, and victor on the only great field won by the Confederates in the West, Chickamauga.
I deeply sympathize with you, as I know all of Longstreet’s corps do.
Yours truly,
Geo. W. Weir,
Company A, Hampton Legion, Hood’s Brigade, Longstreet’s Corps, Army of Northern Virginia.
*****
“He stood the brunt of the battle at Gettysburg.”